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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22579264">Raccoons and Reflection</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/404UnknownUser/pseuds/404UnknownUser'>404UnknownUser</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Castlevania (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adrian is alone and pining, Everyone but Adrian is Mentioned but not there, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Multi, Pining, Reflection</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 11:47:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22579264</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/404UnknownUser/pseuds/404UnknownUser</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the @Castlevania Twitter Posts:</p><p>"After searching most of the night I managed to find the beast, passed out on top of a half eaten cheese wheel in the wine cellar. I think I'll name him Trevor. -Adrian Fahrenheit Ţepeş"</p><p>"Raccoon Trevor has been given a spare length of rope to use as a whip but seems interested in little else besides gnawing at it and I...<br/>...I think it would be best if I actually spent the day outside the castle tomorrow...<br/>-Adrian Fahrenheit Ţepeş"</p><p>"Is this what the castle felt like to you before mother first arrived at your door, father? -Adrian Fahrenheit Ţepeş"</p><p>Adrian isn't sure how much time has passed since Trevor and Sypha left, but he knows its been too long.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya &amp; Trevor Belmont &amp; Sypha Belnades, Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya/Sypha Belnades, Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya/Trevor Belmont, Alucard | Adrian Tepes | Arikado Genya/Trevor Belmont/Sypha Belnades, Trevor Belmont/Sypha Belnades</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>81</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Raccoons and Reflection</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Adrian hadn’t expected for a rope-chewing raccoon to be the thing that finally made him reflect on his father since his death, yet here he was. The raccoon - aptly named Trevor after finding him drunk on cheese and success in the basement - had been his first companion since his namesake left with Sypha. In truth, he wasn’t sure how long it had been since they’d left him behind at his own insistence; his sense of time has always been off, growing years in months and then not at all, made only worse after time spent asleep underground only to be woken up to war with his father. Had it been weeks? Months? </p><p>He couldn’t say how long he’d traveled with Trevor and Sypha, or how long he’d spent asleep before that. He remembers awakening to the two of them, only having moments to figure out what was going on before a fucking <i>Belmont</i> of all people decided to take care of “Floating Vampire Jesus.” Despite putting up an impressive fight - something he’d never admit to Trevor - it was fortunate for him, perhaps for both of them, that Sypha had stepped in when she did. <i>I’m still not sure whether she’s more effective with her magic or her words.</i> Adrian felt a smile slip at the memories of Sypha treating him and Trevor like the children they were being. What could he say? They made him feel young again.</p><p>Still, despite not knowing how long he’d spent with them, he did know that it felt like too long without. Despite his better judgment, he finds himself missing his and Trevor’s back and forth, and the Speaker legends that Sypha would tell when they camped - along with Trevor’s cynical comebacks despite the three of them seemingly proving one such prophecy to be true. He even misses the threats on his life, whether by actual enemies, or simply Trevor’s loudmouth and Sypha’s thinning patience.</p><p>Adrian was pulled from his thoughts by a disgruntled chitter, looking down to see that Trevor the Raccoon had dropped the rope to the floor and since jumping three feet from the table seemed to be too great a task for the creature, looked expectantly at him to pick it up. Doing so Adrian found his thoughts drifting to the end of their journey - and to his father.</p><p>He tried to avoid such thoughts - the wound was still fresh to him, regardless if it had been days, weeks, or months that had passed. His father’s words to his mother as they fought, half insane but still full of love and genuine distress:</p><p>
  <i>“Our boy Lisa, your greatest gift to me, and I’m killing him. I must already be dead.”</i>
</p><p>Those words haunted him more than anything. More than the blood, more than the wounds they all suffered, his father’s words to his mother burned deeper into him. He knew that there were those who believed his father didn’t love her. That if he did he would have turned her and lived out eternity, that by leaving her mortal he was simply waiting for a clock to run out. But those words - those thrice-damned words proved to him what he already knew. His father never turned his mother <i>because</i> he loved her. He loved her humanity, respected her wish to stay that way, wanted so desperately to keep her from being the monsters they were. And by his own words, Adrian was the greatest gift she gave him. </p><p>Dracula may have lost her, lost himself in darkness and revenge following her death, but in those final moments he’d found her again.</p><p>
  <i>Is this what the castle felt like before mother first arrived at your door, father?</i>
</p><p>The thought came to him unbidden, but the truth of it sank deep into his bones. Was he not living just as his father had before, alone in a castle with everything he could need except company? Miracles of science and understanding of the world could not fill the empty space the way a person could. When it was only Adrian and his father in the castle, Dracula still had the presence of thirty men alone. Even when he did little more than sit by the fire and brood, or go into incendiary rages, there was life. Now, there was nothing.</p><p>But where his mother had come to the castle herself, looking upon Dracula not with fear but with curiosity, not shaking but strong, and remained until she was taken, Adrian had brought Trevor and Sypha here, only to watch them leave for their next journey from the door. His father did not seek out company, but loved and nourished it when she came. Adrian was granted company, gruff and sarcastic Trevor, bright and idealistic Sypha, and let them slip through his fingers like sand, watching with a smile as his companions - his friends drove away. </p><p>Even now, it seemed, he was his father’s opposite, Adrian in name but Alucard in actions. Perhaps this was a good thing, that making different choices would keep him from falling down his father’s path. But he knew better; that even if he did everything his father didn’t he could still be just the same. Because despite their differences, they’re driven by the same thing - love for another. Burning bright and fierce despite all attempts to stamp it down. Left uncontrolled it would burn villages, forests, the world, but tempered and cared for it makes a home, warming the castle walls and lighting shadows in dark corners.</p><p>Perhaps the realization that he loves them should startle him, but it doesn’t. It settles into him, warming from within. He won’t make them come back - he will not control them, will respect their wishes, will keep them from the darkness that no doubt follows his path-</p><p>Hm.</p><p>Perhaps he’s more like his father than he thought.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So that was my first fic in about three years. I saw the tweets and had to write about this sad pining man and his raccoon.</p><p>I hope you enjoyed it and any notes in the comments would be welcome!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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